Found Amidst Our Fears
by gilglos
Summary: Newaren is a self taught warrior, but when she sends for help and Lanir and Orophin come, will they be able to save her in her fight against her dreams, her past... and her life?
1. The letter

You will not receive this for a long time coming but when you do I hope that you will come here in all haste. The air has become dark and dim with a man in the house; he is quite vain and conceded. Though he is staying for three days his pack is filled for a month, at least, and I am beginning to suspect he might just stay that long even though it is only the second day he has been here and his welcome is already long worn out. He is beautiful to look at but there is still something about him that I don't trust, maybe it is just because he is my sister's courtier. Even though she is elder and wiser in her ways of nature she is not as skilled with weapons and the ancient knowledge of which, as I am. She will later need protection and I might not be there to give it to her, and that frightens me. For many weeks passed and I have been having dreams that I seem to forget after I wake up but later something jogs my memory and like a piece of the puzzle I am slowly realizing my doom. I have seen that I shall be murdered in a fight to the death, though I do not know when and that I will know when the time is right. I will recognize my killer, so maybe that is why i do not trust him. But still I fear for my sisters safety and wish that when she goes out at night with him she would return safely. But rather that one day I shall go with him for he will have something urgent to tell me whilst my sister sleeps peacefully in the next room and that is how I shall become... one with the earth. Maybe that is my problem I do not listen to my sense of nature as much as I should; I shall have to work on that. My sister is beyond beautiful and skilled; she can heal as well as an elf and that is how her courtier and her met. He was given a stab wound in his leg from a band of orcs a few nights past and she, unfortunately for I believe he will kill me, healed him and so began their courtship. But I think his lineage is that of the wild men for he to has a blood lust in his eyes as they do, I have noticed it when we are eating red meat during a meal. My sister touches none of the red meat for she is a vegetarian but also notices the lust in his eyes but assumes he really likes red meat, but I assume more. I am writing to you because I believe that you can help sort through this feeling and help with extra protection even if you arrive to late for me. I hope you will come in all haste my friend but be careful for I believe wild men have begun to roam just outside our borders as if waiting to attack and siege our village even though its size is small. 

            I signed the letter I wrote to my elven friend in Lorien and sent it by carrier pigeon, our most faithful and swiftest of the ones my sister keeps in the back of the house for emergencies. I left the pigeon coop and went across the garden in the back of our cottage house and made for the forest, Fanghorn forest. Many people were afraid to go in saying it is filled with spiteful spirits older than ourselves that we should avoid, but I always went, it was where I could find peace and solitude for life when I needed to think. I practiced my skills for fighting there in secret, and have lost many of my childhood friends because of it. Not only am I a female warrior, and only a few in my village had known until a battle weeks ago and smiled at the thought of what the hardiest man, our "protector", had looked in shock as I slayed the orc that was choking him. They had found out my secret then and had only semi understood my need to learn and protect. But I seem odd to my village, as if Valor has an unwanted say in my life and they believe that I am cursed because of it. But I do not know who or what other poppycock was put in their heads. They had trusted me and had faith in me since I was little and naive and my father had left, never to be seen again anywhere in Rohan. My mother had sent out the carrier pigeons everywhere in which we assumed he could be, but to no avail.

 But I thought back to my recent problems as I sat down on a tree root with in seeing range of the house. Well seeing range for me, I had keen eyesight, as well as hearing, like that of an elf, but my heritage was all human, only a very distant relation was half elven. My sister and her healing was like that of an elf also but when we were asked by strangers we just shook our heads and sighed, by now we were used to it. I was brought back from my train of thoughts as I saw the man leaving our house to hunt. I did not know his name, I don't believe my sister knew either, but she had fallen under his spell and believed herself in love. No one knew who he was or where he was from and stated that he had amnesia, but I was the only one who could tell he was lying, for he got a dark look in his eyes when he stated it. He has growled in my presence at my forthrightness and stated more then once what he thinks of women who speak out against their elders, but I look at him and he backs down, after glaring at me, but my stare shakes him to the bone, I could tell.

 I got up and tracked him, as well as any ranger. I had met only a few rangers but none ever taught me what I wanted to know. Saying a woman should not need to worry about tracking or hunting when one has such strong and valiant men in her village. I would always leave them scowling and muttering "valiant humph", and would go back into the forest and read from my hidden collection of scrolls that taught me the stories of the great battles of the past and such but never how to fight. That I learned on my own and trusted my skills since they seemed to come naturally as healing did to Anadren, my sister. I jumped onto a low broken branch silently, the man never hearing my footfalls, to absorbed in his own meddlings as I was in mine. But I slipped on a dead branch that snapped under my feet as the man whirled around to see who was above him with a loaded crossbow. I knew I was caught…


	2. Caught

With out thinking I jumped up and grabbed onto the branch above my head quickly hoisting myself up and making myself hidden in the leaves. He was now facing me and had a look in his eyes that scared me, the look of hatred. He walked over to the tree as I was fighting to breathe silently and even, but my heart was racing and I thought that he could hear it below me. He looked up and a squirrel jumped out of its hole in the tree and ran across the branch. The man sighed and turned away going back to his hunting, when I could no longer hear his foot falls near me but off in the distance I let lose a sigh and breath of relief and silently thanked the squirrel. I jumped down and raced back home and once inside the safety of my room I began to laugh and laughed so hard I fell on the bed crying. I began sobbing as I thought about my sister's courtier, who had nearly caught me, there was something about him that was familiar, and that made me think back to my unknown father.

 I knew his name and his lineage, so I wasn't a bastard daughter but I was lonely, I wanted to know a fathers praise such as I had seen all my old friends receive, I wanted him to tell me I was beautiful, I wanted to talk to him and have him teach me the ways of war and fighting, I wanted to see and know him so much it hurt, and left an empty shell of my heart. I thought with a smirk, if I were an elf I would have died of grief long ago. And for that I was thankful for my lineage, I had seen my mother suffer enough with out being an elf, and I was scared of dying, but that was long ago, before I accepted my fate when my dreams first began. 

My mother had died when she was hit with fever years back, she was riding with Melinar, her best friend, to Lorien to seek help for the fever was worsening and the village was worried for her health, when a few hours away from the village her horse reared before jumping a gap across a river and she could no longer hold her seat and fell into the river and drowned under the rapids. Melinar came back depressed and sent men to fetch my mothers body, she herself told my sister and I and felt as if it were her fault, both of us understood and forgave her saying that Valor took her when she was needed. Melinar vowed to help our family in any way she could, teaching Anadren the rest of her skills and me she could not teach so instead wrote to a friend, Mitherandar, I believe was his name. He in turn sent me the scrolls, which I kept hidden in a large dark tree near my clearing. 

My sobs finally died down and I went to wash my face when I noticed darkness spreading over the village as I looked out the window. It was then I noticed a dark band of creatures running down the hill that over shadowed our village. I ran to my bed and grabbed to sword hidden under there and ran out side yelling, "attack". The villagers looked at me as I ran into the center of the village and unsheathed my sword, which I had clipped to my side while I ran. They looked up at the large band of orcs nearing the first row of houses and all chaos broke out.

            "Women and children quick to the winery." I yelled naming our underground safe spot, they all looked at me and paused "NOW!" I yelled as the orcs began to reach the square. The women and their children fled as their husbands ran out with their swords drawn. I sliced across the first orcs stomach, noticing the white hand on his face and not flinching as his black blood splattered onto my clothing. The men had grown used to seeing my fight since the last attack, as well as me wearing leggings and a tunic so I could fight quicker, since in the last attack my drab dress had slowed me down considerably and nearly beheaded me because of it. But the men agreed that thought its likes were only heard of in tales, they liked the shock of my fighting that was given to the attackers. 

I beheaded a few more before I was grabbed from behind…


	3. Amidst the blaze

I was thrown into an alleyway and I shot up into a crouch position to look up at my attacker. It was the man. I looked at him not showing the shock on my face and growled. I had been right, he was a spy sent from Isengard to weaken us and then kill the strongest. But then I looked into his eyes, which were filled with hope, confusion and bewilderment, only a small part of rage. He looked at me and wasted not a minute to speak since he saw he was needed in the attack. "By valor, what were you doing out there? You could get yourself killed. I am well aware that you sounded the alarm, but that does not mean you should participate in it." "I can fight, the villagers know it and I am needed out there, I will not let one man fall needlessly while I could be out their to save them." I growled back at him. He opened his mouth to speak but at that moment a orc found our semi hiding space and before the man knew it I had whipped out my sword and thrust it into the approaching orc and pulling it out so he could fall. The man stood gaping at me confusion clearly written on his face. "Do you want to challenge me so I can get back to the village or not." I stared at him. "Lets go, but if you are hurt I am not taking responsibility and it will hurt your sister more than it will hurt me" having said that he turned and ran out of the alley with a battle cry. I was confused but shrugged it off and joined the battle killing more orcs than I could count. I was thrown against a window, shattering it and as I rose from the floor in a grimace I smelled smoke around me as I fought to breathe through the stench. The orc smell was bad but I had learned to ignore it, but this smell was different and I looked around and felt for the door to leave when I saw it. Red flames shooting out around me. The house was on fire and I could see no way out.  
  
I took a deep breath trying to calm myself. Orcs I knew how to fight, fire, my mind reeled as I took another deep breath of smoke filled air making me cough. How do you fight fire? Fire is flame; flame is controlled with. Water! Water that's the answer as I had struggled to think. I flung my arms out searching for a water source. I took a few steps and repeated the process. My mind was telling me to scream as I fought for control over my body and emotions. I could make out the flames and knew to stay away from them. My hand struck a metal object; I ran my hand along it. A spout! I found water so I felt down and found a bowl beneath it and filled it. I stepped away. My eyes were beginning to burn and sting. I shuffled over to the flame throwing the water on it and turned back and filled the bowl again. I turned to the next flame and shuffled over to it when my foot struck a hard object. I moved my foot and tried sidestepped it. All of a sudden I heard a unintelageable groan and I froze. I had tossed the orc in here with me. The orc grabbed my ankle pulling me down I quickly threw the water onto the flame before I hit the ground hard. The orc leered over me and placed his hands at my throat and tried to choke me. I struggled for air and felt around. My arm caught on a sharp object, my sword. I fumbled for the handle ignoring the pain in my arm where I had cut it and gasped for air. I brought the sword up but blacked out from lack of air. My last thought being "the bastard was right, he had planned this." 


End file.
